Is Wheat Setting Up for a Rally?

The wheat market is a primary staple in human diets as well as global trade, which causes the wheat trade to be affected nearly as much by geopolitics as it is by price and weather, notes Andy Waldock of Commodity & Derivative Advisors.

Therefore, global trade prices have to factor in sanctions, duties, and taxes as well as transportation fees. The simplest way to understand this is by looking at the surplus produced by the primary growers like Canada, Ukraine, Russia, Australia, Argentina, and the European Union, as well as us, and then trying to determine why each one of those countries are also wheat importers. Due to the conflagrated nature of global trade negotiations, I find it easier to focus on the primary players here in the US and plan my trades accordingly.

First, I screen the markets' traders and their eagerness to participate in any market by reviewing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly Commitment of Traders Report. This report breaks the markets' participants into a few primary categories-index traders, non-commercial traders, commercial traders, and non-reportable. Briefly, index traders manage the long-only allocation portion of the fund they represent. Non-commercial traders tend to be the money managers within the futures industry. They trade from both the long and short side as they see fit. Commercial traders are either the producers of the commodity or, the end line users of it. Their trading is based on managing their costs from the production side and maximizing their profits on the producer side. Finally, the non-reportable category is left to small speculators, producers and end line users who are too small to qualify for a larger group.

Hedge funds fall into the non-commercial trader category and their movement finally began to be tracked by the CFTC in 2006. The last three weeks has seen the largest jump in their short position since their trading has become a matter of public record. There are three important factors at work here. First of all, most of this selling took place prior to the November 8 USDA crop report. Secondly, commercial traders in this case, the end users, have absorbed every bit of selling the speculative money has thrown at them. Finally, this dynamic shift in market participant makeup comes near major support near $6.50 per bushel in the March Chicago Board of Trade contract.

This sets the stage for a climax. Our bet is that most of the price decline has passed. Commercial traders are value players. We are looking at the end line wheat consumers locking future delivery prices in order to generate their business models for 2014. Cereal and bread producers are fully aware of what their input costs are and they clearly view this as a bargain. The non-commercial traders who've taken the short side of this market are typically trend followers and pay little attention to price. They're simply riding the wave…until it crashes.

I believe their wave is about to crash. First of all, wheat hasn't been this cheap since July of 2010. Secondly, in both June of 2010 and May of 2012 commercial and non-commercial traders squared off in a similar manner. These market imbalances strongly favor an outcome in favor of the commercial traders. In fact, most solid wheat rallies start by commercial traders putting a floor in to support prices and lock up future inputs. Conversely, every trend trader trades the trend until it's over, then they give back a chunk of their profits on the ensuing market turnaround. Finally, open interest peaked in September and has begun a much earlier decline than normal into the December futures expiration cycle. This means the market is failing to attract new players at these depressed levels.

The daily chart shows a solid basing pattern that is holding just above major support. The December wheat futures rapidly approaching expiration means that anyone who doesn't intend on delivering wheat of the appropriate standard to an approved collection site as well as those who aren't fully prepared to take delivery of the contracts they've purchased must offset their position. Obviously, end line consumers are looking forward to their delivery of cheap wheat. Meanwhile, none of the non-commercial speculative money will be able to make any deliveries. Therefore, I believe that the buying from non-commercial short covering will begin to fuel a rally in the wheat futures market.